Chinese professor expelled from Communist Party claims coronavirus death toll has been covered up
A CHINESE professor expelled from the Communist Party has insisted the coronavirus death toll has been covered up.
Cai Xia, who taught at China’s elite Central Party School, has become just the latest person to cast doubt on President Xi Jinping and the country's coronavirus statistics.
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Covid-19 is believed to have emerged from a wet market in Wuhan in December, and China has been accused of both stifling medical professionals warning of a new disease and lying about the numbers of dead coronavirus left in its wake.
Now a former member of the ruling Communist Party has added her voice to the claims.
Cia Xia, who was expelled from the party on Monday after an audio recording of her calling Xi a "mafia boss"; was leaked online, said her speech was now "free from any constraints".
Having now left the country, she told the Guardian that the country was heading to disaster as "people cannot speak the truth.
"Wuhan’s epidemic spread across the country and the whole world and everyone has been harmed.
"Chinese citizens have borne the brunt and among Chinese people, people in Wuhan suffered the most.
"We have so many people dead, including people like Li Wenliang who should not have died.
"About the number of deaths, up to now China has not even said a real death number.";
China's death toll from coronavirus stands at 4,634, which places them as the 27th worst affected country by death in the world.
Critics say this number is unfeasible given the high comparable death tolls of far smaller nations and the fact that the virus was spreading for weeks before any preventative programme was put in place.
Miss Xia added: "Officials at all levels hide the truth and report only when they cannot cover up any more."
A Chinese newspaper has since hit out at her
Reports from June suggested China's coronavirus total could be 14 times higher than the country's official toll.
The research by American experts suggested the country may have been seeing as many as 2,000 deaths per day during the height of their epidemic in April.
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One expert has also claimed this month that China's ruling party also "purged" a key database from a Wuhan lab.
Cyber security expert Robert Potter claimed analysis of leaked figures from a Chinese data leak appeared to show "major discrepancies" from the data they gave the World Health Organisation.
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China's transparency was again questioned when a doctor who claimed her bosses stifled her warnings about coronavirus mysteriously disappeared in April.
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